Hi All - I misunderstood some of what Spike Shaw told me about John Graas memorabilia, as reported in my post of Feb. 10. (See below.) So, to set the record straight, appended below is the relevant portion of Spike's response to my query about the current location of the Graas material:
"There were several (perhaps even as many as eight) large boxes of miscellany-- scores of tunes he had written for the guys on the west coast, labeled not by instrument but by names such as Shorty, Gerry, J.J., etc, sometimes in multiple arrangements for groups of various sizes-- hand copied 1st horn parts to all the Mahler Symphonies-- his books of horn exercises-- the horn parts to the Tex Beneke dance band book-- some parts of horns (lead pipes, etc.)-- all in all, a large amount of stuff. They say when one is drowning, one's life flashes before one's eyes. In this case, I had the distinct feeling that John's life was flashing before my eyes! I did buy the Sansone and Jane gave me the box of lead pipes, slide grease, valve strings, lyres, almost empty bottles of valve oil and so on, the stuff that all of us have collected over the years." "Anyway, I already had a basement full of musical detritus and didn't want to add to it, so I suggested that she send all of it to the IHS archives, which were at Ball State U, in Muncie IN at that point. I think it sat there and was pretty much ignored, due to lack of personnel to take care of it. It is my understanding that it was later shipped to Eastman from BSU and I have heard little about it since. I should think that Peter Kurau would probably know more about it than anyone else." I will follow up with Peter Kurau concerning the status of the Graas material, and report back anon. Charles Valenza On Feb. 10, Peter Hirsch wrote in part: > You wouldn't know any more about exactly which California institution Spike sent the Graas material to, would you? I'd be most interested in delving into it. Working primarily as a music librarian and archivist (when I'm not playing the horn) I imagine there is a fair chance that I know it's current custodian and I'd like to contact them if only I knew where they worked. > Earlier on Feb. 10. Charles Valenza wrote in part: > <Incidentally, John Graas's Sansone 5-valve, single Bb horn mentioned in > <Graham Jarvis' earlier e-mail is owned by Spike Shaw (of Fripperies fame). > <Coincidentally, my wife and I visited Spike and Ellen last weekend. (The > <Buffalo Philharmonic was playing Mahler's 1st -- spectacularly!) Spike > <showed me Graas's horn during a tour of his new digs. He bought it from > <Graas's widow, who also gave him several cartons of Graas memorabilia, which > <Spike has now donated to some California institution which is archiving the > <material. _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
